As the New Year is fast
approaching this marijuana
seed article takes a look at the Netherlands and their changing policies
that will soon take effect. As of January 1st 2012, a new policy
will come into effect in some areas of the Netherlands’ southern provinces,
meaning that all foreigners will be banned from selling marijuana in “coffee
shops”. The Netherlands, which has been famous worldwide for its liberal
marijuana policies, is now one step closer to facilitating “weed passes” in
order to discourage the sale of marijuana to foreign tourists, as a result of a
court ruling in June of this year.

Dutch “coffee shops” have
always openly sold cannabis flowers as well as hashish to customers, who have
included foreign tourists visiting the area, some may say mainly for this
experience. However, over the past three years there have been changes pushed through
by the successive governments in order to discourage the sale of “soft drugs”
on health and crime grounds. The changes are set to continue as 2013 will see
the 2012 ban being imposed across the remaining nine provinces in the
Netherlands, which will include Amsterdam.

Licensed coffee shops will
turn into “members only” enterprises, where only Dutch citizens who are over
the age of 18 will be able to join. It has been claimed that the changes are
due to the problems caused by the “drug tourists” of a night in the country.
The flip side of this coin has some officials worried that the country will
suffer due to its tourism industry taking a hit. Currently, 23% of visitors to
Amsterdam frequent coffee shops while they are in the city. Moreover, others argue
that this policy will encourage the illegal sale of drugs and send the market
underground.

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